FuturesTechs Blog

One of our services offered to clients is providing trade recommendations in UK equities. After taking a step back from the market last July – October when Risk Reward opportunities weren’t viable given the intraday volatility, our service has resumed and run consistently since December. Capitalising on the year end rally and move so far this year recent recommendations report solid returns. (For a spreadheet of our Trade Recs please contact us)

Our current outlook for the FTSE itself remains bullish in line with the recent trend higher although a lack of volume is worrying as we approach significant resistance as shown by the FTSE chart below.

As such, the Risk Reward for further upside in the FTSE isn’t particularly favourable so our recent recommendations have focused on short opportunities. Obviously such action is risky given the trend of the market which is why we’ve looked into stocks that have recently released fundamental news and reacted with a large increase in volume. Two such instances are Tullow Oil and Morrisons Supermarkets.

Tullow Oil has been trading within a broad sideways consolidation since September but continues to fail around 1470. After releasing an update the stock gapped lower to post an ‘Abandoned Baby’ candlestick reversal. Additionally a failure at the underside of a broken up trend line has provided an opportunity for a short trade running a stop above the recent gap lower.

Morrisons Supermarkets posted a massive reversal candle at the start of the year and hasn’t looked back since. After selling off significantly Morrisons lost further ground and gapped lower following comments from rival Tesco. A counter trend rally has returned to the 38.2% retracement and a break above short term swing highs at 298 was rejected yesterday to post a Bearish Engulfing Candle on good volume. Trade below yesterdays low begins to confirm the Bearish Engulfing candle providing an entry for a short trade whilst running a stop above the Gap.

Both these trades have been sent to our clients and although against the trend of the market their relative underperformance, fundamental news flow, and increased volume increases the probability of the trade. This is why stock selection is key.

Liam Roberts MSTA

The last few days have seen some big swings either way in Equity markets.

“Where next?” I hear you ask! Our chief market analyst Clive Lambert was on CNBC last night trying to pick the bones out of this price action, looking at the S&P 500 Futures, FTSE Futures, and suggesting Fresnillo as a Stock to buy.

See it on our media page by clicking here.

This morning’s reports on Silver and the FTSE would have reaped dividends for our clients, for different reasons.

Here’s the text of the FTSE Futures report:

We have posted the “all sessions” chart today because it’s actually a bit cleaner, and also shows what we’ve seen overnight; selling.

Selling to the 200 day MA as well, this well watched proxy sitting at 5771.5 today.

Yesterday’s low was 5827 in day session trade so this is a bold resistance above, and if the bulls don’t quickly retake this mark we will likely break through 5771.5 and head to 5615.5 then 5584.

If the bulls can dust themselves down from this weak open and get us back through 5816 and 5827 we then need to retake 5869.5 then fill the gap to 5912.

My gut tells me this weak open is a buying opportunity. The chart tells me otherwise…

Nice “gut feeling”!

Our Silver commentary was a bit more “nailed on”, and since we sent it out first thing this morning in the UK it traded up to 37.330 (as we tuck into our lunch in the UK, awaiting the open in the US):

Lunchtime (in the UK!) Update: We now have day session gap support at 36.400, protected by the broken resistance at 37.020, the latter having done a job in the last hour or so “on the retest”.

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Individual traders can have a look on our website on a trial basis by clicking here.

Last week we posted a Blog about the potential Head and Shoulders pattern forming in the FTSE Futures. Things got interesting with respect to this yesterday, which was the crux of our morning report, reproduced below.

The fact that we’re not breaking this line PROPERLY does suggest the market’s ambilvalence is set to continue.

Towards the European close yesterday we were selling off, and we’d got through 5858, the Neckline of the Head and Shoulders pattern that we’ve been watching of late. So on the “Day only” chart that we prefer, as above, we have a slight closing break of this Neckline, and a sell signal.

Except we’re called 50 higher this morning and this will instantly tell us that the sell signal is a false one.

It looks like the market is happy in it’s current moribund range-bound confused stupor, and we’ve got to put up with this situation for a bit longer.

We’re not getting any firm signals at the moment, then, and this counts for the Individual stocks as well, making our (and your) job a rather tough one.

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Below is the Comment and Chart from today’s FuturesTechs report. As well as this we provide Support and Resistance levels from our own analysis, as well as “Automated” levels referencing Market Profile, Pivot Points and Moving Averages.

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From yesterday: “Backing either camp is proving difficult in this volatile environment so our Skew turns neutral’

Sideways consolidation at multi month highs remains the story, albeit in a volatile environment. The dip below the previous days low found buyers at 1328.75 who rallied the market up to 1348.75, the previous breakdown level, on good volume.

Yesterdays low validates an up trend line from the low on the 14th March. Today this trend line provides support at 1330.50. Yesterdays downside rejection in conjunction with the validation of the up trend line means our Skew switches to tentatively bullish above 1330.50.

We have sent an extra report to our customers this morning, outlining the POTENTIAL sell signal that’s looming in the FTSE Futures. Here is the text and accompanying chart:

We have a potential “Head and Shoulders” pattern forming in the FTSE, although the sell signal has not been given yet.

The sell signal comes if we break the “Neckline” which is at 5851, and probably on a closing basis as well (although a “clean” break on high volume would convince me enough to take the signal “intra-day”).

The target, using the traditional measuring technique for this pattern, would be 5600.

Of course this also comes off the back of the recent failure at 6095, which was very similar to the February high/failure (6086.5). The “Double Top” sell signal from this situation would only be triggered on a move through 5584.5, so a long way off yet….

5851 is on the radar, however, so “Watch this space!”

If you would like a free trial of our daily technical analysis reports please click on one of the links below:

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Below is a sample of a note we sent to our “Premium” clients today; those clients who receive our Trade Recommendations service covering Individual UK Stocks. We’ve gone a bit quiet on this front of late as we await some clarity from the markets. In fact it’s been one of the most frustrating periods I can remember on this front! This frustration may show in what we put out. If you are trading or Broking CFDs on UK Equities and required Technical Analysis to aid your decisions or offer ideas please let us know (clikc the link below) and we’ll set you up with a Free Trial.

http://www.futurestechs.co.uk/professional_trial/

So to today’s note:

If you’ve been wondering why we’ve been so quiet of late it’s because we’re doing lots of head scratching when looking at the charts right now. The Equity markets have been a very fraught hunting ground of late!

So with an apology for lack of recent recommendations here’s proof that we’re not just sitting around doing nothing: A list of every FTSE Stock with a line (sometime just a word!) to say what I’m seeing and why we’ve not got a conviction trade on!

AAL - Looks heavy, but is holding it’s 200 day MA (2950) and previous support in the low 29’s. Scope to 2490 if it breaks

ABF - Very rangy feel to the chart in the short term. Bigger picture suggest scope for weakness to 960 or even 920.

ADM - Hasn’t done anything since September

AGK -  Could be worth buying, looking for a hold above 1700

AMEC - Hasn’t done anything since November

ARM - Probably worth buying, but Reward/Risk isn’t right

ANTO - Looks bearish, but downside could be restricted to 1208

AU - Going sideways - No trade here

AV - Going sideways - No trade here

AZN - 200 day MA at 3095 might weigh. 3145 and 3175 also resistance

BAE - Been going sideways since October 2008!!

BARC - Breaking support at 277.50, but next support is 261, then 256, then 253. Too many supports below for a decent short risk/reward wise

BATS - Bullish, should hold 2645

BG - Broke support at 1400 last week but came roaring back. Gap above at 1498 is a worry for the bulls though.

BLND  - Slow, steady riser. Good one to hold, but buying at these levels?

BLT - Left an “Island Reversal” back in April, when we shorted it. Scratched the trade on the subsequent high. Doh!

etc etc!!

In Brief: All I keep hearing at the moment is how we will have a 10% correction, so, let’s have a look:

The “funnymentalist” community, particularly Stateside, seem pretty happy with the idea that this pullback will be a “normal” affair and will pull back 10% from the January highs, at which point you can happily pile in, buy the dip, and carry on where we left off…

I thought it would be useful to know where this level is on the markets we watch. So here goes, and we’re looking at the Cash Indexes here, NOT the Futures:

Dow: High was 10730. 10% pullback level is 9657 (currently 10023)

S&P 500: High was 1150, pullback level is 1035 (at 1065 right now)

NASDAQ: High was 1897, pullback level is 1707 (1743 now)

DAX: 6094 was the January high, 10% off that is 5485.  BROKEN

FTSE: 5600 high, 5040 is 10% pullback. 5033 was last week’s low, so holding…

Eurostoxx: Pulled back from 3044. 10% back from here is 2740. BROKEN

CAC: high was 4088, so 10% back from there is 3680, BROKEN.

So to summarise,  if anyone stateside says to you about 10% pullbacks the simple thing to say is “thanks, but we’re already beyond that!”… especially if/when the FTSE breaks 5030-40.

Keep safe in these markets.

Last week’s big highlight was meant to be the US Employment Report. As it turned out all the action was before this, and the numbers were a bit of a damp squib (like the topical analogy there?).

Equity markets have caught a fresh bid, and we were early to catch this as there were several reversal patterns on major indices at the start of last week. We were bullish from Wednesday onwards, so have reaped some firm rewards on the back of that timely change of sides.

Most of our readers are short term traders so they benefit from these timely “calls”. Longer term traders and Investors may be on the sidelines waiting for an opportunity to get in, and coming out of a dip or retracement is an ideal opportunity. Often, as was the case last week, our charts can tell us nice and early if it’s likely that a pullback has come to an end.

We are now looking to see if resistance at 5300 in the FTSE Index will be seen off. If this  happens the next upside target is 5650, a failure high from last August.

Gold is on another big run at the moment and has traded up to a high of $1111 as of yesterday morning. Yesterday’s candlestick (A “Shooting Star”) gave a warning that things may be getting toppy at these levels but so far we haven’t seen any downside moves to confirm this, so we’re sticking to the idea of higher prices going forward, targeting $1192 next, then $1250.

Oil is stuck in a range for now. Brent Crude has traded between $75 and $80 for weeks now. We expect this range to get broken with a move higher, and we would then target $90 and beyond. We have been suggesting to our clients to buy the dips to $75, and whatever their timeframe this has worked out well. Longer term holders would never have been offside, whereas those who trade in and out should have been able to jump out at $78 to $80 on several occasions then buy again at £75 next time it comes off.

If you are uncertain of any of the terminology used or methodologies discussed in this report you could swot up on our website. Feel free to ask for a Free Trial by clicking here.

Yours,

The FuturesTechs Team

Every week we send out a weekly round up e-mail to our database, and we figured it would probably be useful to post it here as well, so here goes!

FuturesTechs Weekly Round up - 19th October.

Here is your latest roundup of price movements on the major asset classes in the Investment arena. As regular readers will know by now we at FuturesTechs only look at the price action to determine what trend an instrument is in, and where this suggests it can head in the future. Many technicians use Cycle analysis to make longer term calls, and this is what allowed us to make the “call” that we were near a bottom back in March for Equity markets like the FTSE and DAX. Currently our analysis suggests there is a pullback imminent, but so far each time the market has threatened this sort of move the buyers have stepped back in and bought into the dips. There was some price action towards the tail end of last week that was slightly worrying, but once again the bulls appear to have averted the threat.

The Dow may be above 10000 as we write, but it’s failing to convince and we prefer maintaining a cautious stance for now. I heard a great line on the financial news channels last week. Someone said they were “at the party, but dancing near the door”. That sums up how we feel about the present state of things.

So we’d warn against getting too complacent about this recent rise, and we’d warn against worrying that you’ve missed the boat. Generally tops are formed when people pile in thinking they’ve got to get in because they’ll miss out otherwise!! If our analysis is right there will be a pullback soon, and it could even be a deep one, and just when people think we’re heading back to those March lows is just the time you want to be buying!

Gold has been front and centre on people’s minds of late, and the amount of mainstream press it’s been getting (all bullish) worries us, as far as whether this rally can sustain itself is concerned. BUT it has held above some important technical support levels like the $1027 to $1034 region, so we are happy to stay with the trend and back it to keep heading higher for now.

Oil has been the one that has surprised us. We weren’t expecting to see $75 again in a hurry but we’re above here at present, so now there’s scope for higher prices and we’ve been forced to readjust our thinking.

The Dollar’s weakness is the other big topic that many have had on their minds of late. We are keeping a particularly close eye on Dollar/Yen, actually, and want to see a move through 91.15 to take further pressure off the dollar.

Finally just a reminder that we are exhibiting at the World Money Show this year. It takes place at the QE2 Conference Centre in London (bang opposite Big Ben) on October 30^th and 31^st. Admission is free, so register and be sure to come along and say hello. Click here to register

If you wish to benefit from our analysis on a daily basis it is just £50 a month (+VAT). You can become a member by clicking here.

Have a good week,

The FuturesTechs Team.